Valentine Cards, Birthday cards and a pig

Okay, I told you earlier that on Tuesday, we did tatting as well as making cards. Here are some of the cards I made for Valentine's Day....and I made a birthday card for my granddaughter too. I went to Michael's Friday evening and bought a piggy bank and I decorated it too for her. This was so much fun and my DIL and granddaughter loved it. I'm going to do this or things like this more. It is so much fun to add something extra to a gift to make it your own. That's what being a crafter is all about anyway, right? Anyone can go out and buy a gift and a card but when you make something, it's from the heart...









Here's the pig...

My beautiful Amaryllis

Hey, look at this. I have never had any luck growing these but this one came out and didn't die on me. It is beautiful...the pictures don't do it justice. My MIL gave these for Christmas. She gave these to my DIL, a friend of hers, me and she kept one for herfelf. She has a great green thumb but hers died. All of ours produced and were beautiful. Mine turned out the biggest. There were four blooms on one stem and 3 blooms on the second stem. They are still blooming but are dying now and I have to read and find out how or what to do now with the bulb. I would like to have this next year too. It was fun to watch it grow....

Happy Birthday Alayna

Hello sweetie, Happy Birthday. My sweet granddaughter is 4 years old today. We are celebrating this Saturday with a little girl's tea party...doesn't that sound like fun?

I love you...Grammy

Miscellanous Things

I know it's been awhile since I've blogged but I've been busy. I have been sewing,d hand quilting, tatting, knitting, watching grandbabies and I have even been taking drawing lessons. I haven't finished anything yet. I'm close. I have four bindings to put on quilts. I have a sweater almost finished. I'm working on the yoke....I'm almost finished with my friends hand quilted quilt. Just not enough free time to do it all. As soon as I'm through with something, you'll see pictures. I'm really anxious to start my new BOM's but I'm staying strong and not starting anything. I've been a really good girl. I'm trying really hard to stay on task.

I am taking a drawing class. I have had two classes (there are 4 in all.) The class is based on a book called Drawing from the right side of the brain. Well, I must not have any brain on the right side, cause I cannot draw! The teacher said she can teach anyone to draw. Yeah right, I think I'm going to be the one to prove her wrong. I don't even want to go to the third class....I've been talking to myself all week about it. I was so frustrated when I left the last class, I wanted to scream. Art is supposed to be about relaxation and stress reduction....at least, that's what this teacher says. Hmm, maybe I should medicate myself before or if I go. That might be the only way I'm not stressed out about this class. I have always wanted to draw but this just proves to me (again) that I was not wrong when I gave up art in the 7th grade...I'll decide Sunday morning if I go that afternoon for class. I'm usually not a quitter but I don't know if I can handle being so frustrated.....We'll see.

I went to tatting class last night and we worked on Valentine cards. Everyone in the tatting class is so talented. These ladies are so good with all crafts. They tat, knit, crochet, scrapbook, sew, you name it and they can do it. We all brought our Sizzix machines, card stock, glue, tape, etc and made Valentine cards for our grandchildren, husbands, friends, etc. It was so much fun. I learned how to do embossing. I had never done that before and it was alot of fun. I know I'm going to have to have some 40% off coupons for Michael's or Hobby Lobby as I'm going to have to go get me some more craft stuff. I'll be stimulating the economy a little bit!
We even tatted some last night. We all had a great time. We will be knitting a little next week. One of our teachers is a knitting teacher too and she is teaching us the Moebius scarf. I have always wanted to make that so I'm looking forward to that. Til next time....

Fun with Grandbabies

I watched my grandbabies tonight for my kids. They are fun but man, they wear me out. Brandon is 5 and Alayna is going to be 4 next Wednesday. I took them to Soulman's Bar B Q for supper. Brandon loves barbeque. He calls Soulmans, Pigtown....I didn't know what he was talking about when he told me he wanted to go to Pigtown! He also has a unique name for Home Depot, he calls it Man Land. I love it. Only 5 years old and already has opinions. We ate barbeque then came back and watched Finding Nemo. I had to talk Brandon into watching that as it is a kid's movie and he's not a kid...he's a boy. We watched Nemo and he loved it. Popcorn and M & M's for snack, bath and bed. Boy, I was ready for bed too. Mom and Dad came in and I played with the baby for awhile. He smiled at me four times. My heart flipped over. Aren't grandkids great? With that warm, fuzzy feeling, I gave him back to his Mama and went home.

Hearts- I love them

Some tatting finishes

Ok, I said I wouldn't start anything new....I really haven't except for tatting. I'm doing these so I can get ready for the State Fair. My tatting group has decided to enter our tatting into the Great State Fair of Texas this year. There hasn't been any tatting at the fair in several years so we thought we would change that. So here are some things I've made in the past 2 weeks....I can't seem to think of anything else right now. It's like a virus. I enjoy doing this cause I can sit in front of the TV and do it at the same time...I have got to start my quilting back soon and I will....next week.

This heart is called Heart's Desire and is a pattern by Sue Fuller. I got it off the Georgia Seitz website...click here to go there.



This heart is from the book Learn to Tat by Janette Baker



These are a few little pieces I've done just to learn how to do things.




This is called Hope and is out of Mary Konior's book, Tatting with Visual Patterns.
The blue one on the left was made with size 10 thread, the smaller version was a size 20 Flora thread. I didn't like the size 10 with the bigger picots. I like it better in the smaller version but wished I made it with a solid color instead of variegated thread. I really like her book and want to make several more if not all the patterns out of it.




This is a little bookmark I made off of Yarnplayers blog. Click
here for the link




Now, this last picture is something I'm working on now. This is a necklace I'm working on adding beads to it. Our assignment for the week was to do something with beads. Anything we wanted to do. So I found this pattern also on Georgia Seitz's website and it is called Filigree Necklace by Susan Phillipo (a/k/a TatWolf) and here is a link to that pattern. It is a fun, easy pattern for split rings. I really like this Mexicana thread by J P Coates Royale Classic...fun color to work with.